HIGH WINDS SPARK WILDFIRE FEARS FIREFIGHTERS KEEP DAMAGE MINIMAL IN TWO GRASS BLAZES.Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer With Santa Ana winds Santa Ana Winds may refer to: 1. Santa Ana wind, a local Southern California reference to Föhn winds, a meteorological phenomenon occurring as a layer of wind is forced over a mountain range -- drying the air -- which then passes over the crest and begins to move downslope -- gusting to 50 mph and a pair of small brush fires popping up in the Valley on Thursday, firefighters counted their blessings and waited for the infernal winds and the wildfire danger to ease this morning. A backfiring trash truck on the Ronald Reagan Freeway sparked two grass fires near Wilbur Avenue about 11:45 a.m., and flying embers ignited a wood shake roof on a house two blocks away, said Los Angeles Fire Department The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), also known as the Los Angeles City Fire Department to distinguish it from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. It is the agency that provides fire protection and emergency medical services for the city of Los Angeles. spokesman Bob Collis. But firefighters doused both within an hour, and contained damage to four acres of brush and $1,000 worth of shingles shingles: see herpes zoster. shingles or herpes zoster Acute viral skin and nerve infection. Groups of small blisters appear along certain nerve segments, most often on the back, sometimes after a dull ache at the site; pain becomes , he said. ``We were lucky. It really could have been bad,'' Collis said. ``With that wind blowing, you just don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. .'' But the close call merely highlighted the danger from Santa Ana winds, like those blowing Wednesday and Thursday, which compound the extreme fire danger caused by the low humidity and lack of rain. ``We're on a course here for one of the driest winters on record,'' said oceanographer William Patzert with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. . ``It's getting critical. We're not getting any rainfall, but we're getting some pretty strong Santa Anas.'' The devil winds that tore through the region came from a dome of high pressure over the Great Basin Great Basin, semiarid, N section of the Basin and Range province, the intermontane plateau region of W United States and N Mexico. Lying mostly in Nevada and extending into California, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah, it is bordered by the Sierra Nevada on the west, the in Nevada and other Western states, said meteorologist Bill Hoffer He compared it to an upside-down cereal bowl 10,000 feet high, with winds blowing clockwise and down from the top of it. Above that was another ridge of high pressure, from 15,000 to 25,000 feet, adding its own gusts and doubling the wind rolling into the waiting area of low pressure - us. In Los Angeles County, the valleys were under a wind advisory with breezes from 25-35 mph and 50 mph gusts Thursday, Hoffer said. Mountain areas were under a wind warning, with northeast winds at 35-45 mph and gusts hitting 70 mph in passes and canyons. They were forecast to die down Thursday night. Hoffer said the number of Santa Ana events isn't really greater this year than in past years, but Patzert said the La Nina phenomenon has increased their intensity. The effect has pushed the jet stream farther north, sending ``one storm after another into Seattle, like a conveyor belt,'' Patzert said. And following each of those storms is a high-pressure system heading east, like the one that caused this week's Santa Anas. ``This is definitely the pattern through the winter and into the spring,'' Patzert said. ``This is not going away in a few weeks.'' And the dry, dusty winds were more than annoying - they were aggravating everybody's throat, lungs and sinuses. ``When I got up this morning I was sneezing To verbally tell somebody about a new and interesting Web site. See viral marketing. like crazy,'' Patzert said Thursday. But the gusts were especially harmful to people with breathing problems, and were compounding an already nasty flu season, said Dr. Reza Nahed, director of the pulmonary department at Providence-Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. ``Those people with allergies or asthma or emphysema emphysema (ĕmfĭsē`mə), pathological or physiological enlargement or overdistention of the air sacs of the lungs. A major cause of pulmonary insufficiency in chronic cigarette smokers, emphysema is a progressive disease that commonly , it's really a killer for them. It causes a lot of problems - wheezing Wheezing Definition Wheezing is a high-pitched whistling sound associated with labored breathing. Description Wheezing occurs when a child or adult tries to breathe deeply through air passages that are narrowed or filled with mucus as a , coughing, loss of breath,'' he said. ``Wind is not good for anybody.'' In the past two weeks, he has treated 50 patients, when he normally would deal with 20. ``Avoid the wind as much as possible - that's the first thing,'' Nahed advised. And anyone susceptible to breathing problems should seek medical help at the first symptoms. ``Don't postpone it, or you could end up in the emergency room in bad shape.'' CAPTION(S): 3 photos Photo: (1) Firefighters take positions Thursday while battling a blaze along the 118 Freeway. (2 -- 3) At left, an L.A. city firefighter soaks a brushfire brush·fire also brush fire n. 1. A fire in low-growing, scrubby trees and brush. 2. A relatively minor crisis. adj. that broke out Thursday along the Ronald Reagan Freeway between Tampa Avenue and Reseda Boulevard. Above, a city fire helicopter helps out with a water drop on the same fire. Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer |
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